Antis Roofing: Since 1989, Antis Roofing has been serving the roofing needs of Southern California Homeowners Associations!
- KLS
- Apr 3
- 19 min read
For the 171st feature of our "Together Talks" campaign, we collaborated with Antis Roofing & Waterproofing and Founder and Chief People Awakener, Charles Antis. Since 1989, Antis Roofing has been serving the roofing needs of Southern California Homeowners Associations!
"Together Talks" feature # 171: Antis Roofing & Waterproofing presented by KLS - Your Trusted Shipping Solutions In The USA
Can you reflect on a goal you set, achieved, and how it made you feel? Goals for upcoming year + Next phase of the company?
What were your concerns to transition to starting your own business? How have you dealt with being the face of the company?
How have you grown due to becoming an entrepreneur? What aspect of entrepreneurship do you appreciate the most? Share a decision that you made that was detrimental? What is your why?
Story of how it was created?
I'm always excited to talk about the background of our company, probably because we did find our why. I didn't know what that was when I started my company. I didn't start my company out of a business plan. I started my company because I was in Southern California, I worked for a roofing company and the roofing company ran out of work. I basically had to hustle a couple of side jobs to get by. I remember when I started my business, I just remember a feeling of desperateness. I think a lot of business owners can relate. I was desperate to prove myself. I was desperate to solve the leak for the family that no one else could solve. If I could solve that leak from rain being in the roofing business, then, before I really knew what purpose was at work, that was really purposeful looking back.
That was the noble action and a noble cause, That really allowed Antis Roofing to survive through all those years of drought, where most roofing companies don't. We started the business with this motto, give me the leak that no one else can solve, and I'll fix it for free. That was the only thing that I knew, and I didn't know it was marketing, but that was my marketing message. I told that to property managers because the area I was exposed to and roofing was condominiums. What happened then is what really is astounding.
One was solving the leak. You get the call about a leak that no one has solved for 15 years. You question your decision, because now you have to keep your word. Then I was given a chance to show our value. A family had already moved out of the home because of the mold smell. I got it to it the next day because I needed that work and I learned it wasn't a two-story wooden condominium structure in Redondo Beach. It was a eight-story structure, a square box eight-story apartment building. I looked at the leak and it was on the sixth floor on the outside wall. Way back then, 30 years ago, I didn't have a ladder that could go up that high and I wouldn't want my guys using a ladder that goes up that high today.
I got a Bosun's chair, that's how desperate I was. If you don't know what it is, it's that sailor chair you see when you're on a cruise ship where they're washing or painting the boat. It's just a little wooden plank held by a rope anchored on the roof and you're hanging from it dangling. That's how I attempted this roof because I had told him, give me the leak. My dad had told me, "you always show up, you always do the right thing and you always, you always fulfill your word". This was a challenge that I intended to solve. I just remember the predicament I was in, there I was hanging off the edge of that roof on that eight-story condo in Redondo Beach. I had all these pieces of wood siding clipped on all these tethers hanging on ropes beside me with the makita saw on my hip. I had filled every tether. I had this whole section of siding that now I had to put back together and I didn't find anything. There was nothing to see. I thought, what am I doing here? I look like a wind chime and I felt so low.
Then I looked down at last, after I pulled off that last piece and I saw a little bit of a white flaky powder stuff. I picked at it and just fell apart, it was just rotten. Behind it was some old building paper and it had rotted. Behind that it was wet and I saw not only a wet but a rusty, ancient square-headed nail. Original construction was in the1930s. It was a square-headed nail and it was going through a pipe, That thing had been leaking for decades and more and more and more but no one had found it.
Give me the leak no one can solve and now there I was staring over looking at the beach thinking bring it on. I've got the right motto and I think that was when I took that momentum and went forward. I believed that I could get work. When it would rain, that was when I would leverage. Most roofers would shut down, but again I would tell property managers give me that leak that no one can solve. Then I would go out and I would do it. That worked really good and we grew the company a little bit. But the thing that really changed nd really helped us found our why was the next memorable story. That was getting a call from a woman who had leaks in every room. I was so desperate for work when I started the business, I literally put weather stripping on a home bedroom I converted to an office, if somebody did call on those two or three calls a week, they wouldn't hear kids.
That's how this woman called. I went out there expecting to sell work, but when I started getting closer to this home near LAX, I could tell that it was getting disheveled, I saw graffiti. I just remember when I finally turned on that street, I'd kind of lost hope. I looked at it and I saw this house, it wasn't well kept, it was square box. But I do the right thing, dad says you show up. I knocked on the door and then I just remember really quickly three things happening. A woman enters the door, but instead of smiling, she's frowning. I'm about to say something and suddenly I'm hit with a wave of mildew that's so vile that I just recoil, now I'm thinking what to say because I'm leaving, and the third impression is a tug on my arm. I look down and there's this little smiling girl, while her mom's frowning. This little girl is pulling me into this really disheveled home through a small crooked hallway and suddenly she turns into her room. I could tell it was her room because she proudly smiled at me and pointed to a my little pony poster that was beautiful and brand new. But in contrast at that exact same time that's when I look down at her feet and I saw the moldy mattress where she slept on. It was it was a difficult situation to be in. I felt that I couldn't do anything to help them on the one hand. On the other hand, it felt like I could do something to help this family because I can tell they've got no money.
I didn't say a word. This is racing through my head. And suddenly the mom walks back in the room. I see that frown again, she said, "You're going to tell me 'yeah, I know, ma'am, I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do.'" Something in me came out of me that I never remember saying before then. And I think it really was the first day of my why. I said, I'm going to take care of your roof. Something weird really happened in that transition because I really wanted to take care of that roof. Suddenly I wanted to help that lady, but I was praying it was nothing. It was just like a hole in the roof. I went up there and they needed a whole new roof. I had to organize volunteers and we went up that weekend. We donated a roof and it wasn't beautiful. But it was dry and they stayed in that home.
Looking back this is when I started to discover why we existed at Antis Roofing. It's to keep families safe and dry. I realized I had to ask, can I do it? Yes, I can, then I must. That's what happened to me that day and looking back, that's when I started to develop my why and that's when how we developed our why. Today, we have a thriving company with really great leaders that could serve in any industry, but they're here because of purpose. Because we know why it exists, that trade is old as time, helping families stay safe and dry. Sometimes we keep them fed too or sometimes we have blood drives. Whatever it takes to provide that security that we all need to be healthy, happy, thriving at home, I think it's our job as much as we can with our people and our community to extend ourselves with all of our resources and share.
I really want to make the point that we often misunderstand business and successes as hoarding capital, hoarding cash, hoarding property, when there's so much need around us.
I think the highest of humanness is what I learned upon that roof. Think like water, by letting go of knowing where that leak was, that's when I started to solve every leak, because water teaches us, water flows without bias. That's what we do to find the leak, and that's what we do in the community. I think that's what all businesses should do. That's why we thrive. I'm not lacking for anything. I'll be honest, I live a very comfortable life. But I don't hold my assets as mine. I hold them as assets of the company. And as much as I can, the community and industry. That's why Eric Goodman referred me to you. That's why I watch him.
We didn't really conjure the words so simply, we exist to keep family safe and dry really until maybe seven, eight years ago. It took me a long time to tell my people that story about the moldy mattress. I never told that story to anybody and some of our giving was wonky in the beginning. I wasn't all enthusiastic, but if you don't tell your people why you want to give this, then how can they share in that beautiful experience? That's where storytelling becomes a really important thing, trying to express yourself to your people and to the community. That's what all the collaboration, branding, marketing, building culture is about. I call it inside out. Our marketing department also works on our culture. If it was in any other way, then we wouldn't be real. Our insides match our outsides, so I always encourage, in as much as you can, let the same people lift the brand that lift the culture and vice versa.
What have been the biggest challenges?
There's a lot of challenges that we have in the roofing industry. It's extremely dangerous business, there's a lot of liabilities. The first thing that comes to mind that's challenging is safety, but I'm going to come back to safety. Weather is the other big challenge, rain, a lack of weather. In Southern California, we often have drought years, and up until a month ago, we had the driest five months on record. When you're a Southern California roofing company and you go from a really rainy year to a drought year, you have way less calls. You have to be a very flexible company. It's hard when you're young to be flexible, especially if you have a good year and you go out and buy that boat. You really have to discipline yourself to thrive in this business. Even though we're known as an extremely generous company, I say that with pride, we donate all the Habitat roofs, McDonald House roofs, we do a lot of giving. We are able to do that even in drought years, and the reason is we have a tax plan, and we have a donor advice fund.
It's simple. It's like it's our own nonprofit, but without paying a staff, and some years we put over a million dollars into our donor advice fund. It allows us to give that money in non rainy years. In fact, I want to tell you this, it is like the government's investing with you. It is a fantastic plan because that money, that million dollars would have been taxed, got put it in this fund, and now that money that was not taxed. It's amazing how you can flip opportunities if you plan in this business. But drought and threat of weather is really the thing that puts most roofing companies down on the west coast.
The next thing is just liabilities. There's the liability of exposure. If you leave a roof open, you're accused of your roof leaking, and if you can't prove that it's not true, then you could have a mold liability in the building of a million dollars. Liabilities today in roofing are huge, but the biggest, the most important, and the one that we spend the most time talking about is safety. We are working on hundreds of properties, and we have the responsibility to protect these families. We have very strict safety requirements. There's OSHA safe, but we have what we we call Antis-safe. It's what I need to have to sleep at night. Even on one story buildings, our guys need to be tied off or they'll be yellow carded. If they get three yellow cards, they will be terminated. We might love them. We might think they're our best people. But if we allow someone with experience to do something that's unsafe with younger people watching them, then we are setting a precedent that is unacceptable.
Safety is by far the very most important thing that any roofing company can talk about, can invest in. We have a robust safety team. And we're very creative. Bobby, who's in here in the studio right now helping me run the podcast, he's our visual storyteller at Antis. He spends a lot of time internally building safety videos, just so our men will hear it. I have to tell you, the first time I saw one, I was offended at first until I understood the brilliance. I was like a Mexican, Ron Burgundy, he was speaking in Spanish and he was making fun of all these safety things that people weren't doing, driving and then I realized how brilliant it was. Because now all of the men were watching all of the footage and learning together and sometimes you have to laugh at what you're not doing right to correct the course. What I'm seeing now in safety is beautiful and that is the toughest part. I don't want to go into it but I can tell you I've had the worst imaginable loss under my jurisdiction as being responsible for my people. I suffered the worst, we've suffered the worst imaginable when we have a lot of people crawling on roofs. It's something that you never ever want to experience and you'll do anything and dedicate all of your resources to protect your people and that's the biggest threat that hits me personally.
What aspect of entrepreneurship do you appreciate the most?
I feel so lucky that I'm able to serve because I used to work 90 hour weeks, chasing sales, running jobs. Today I spend all of my time volunteering doing stuff like this. I sometimes wonder how my company could be better now, than when I was the master of all these things. Now all I'm doing is serving. I am on six or eight boards, doing podcast, just today speaking at Samwellie Academy on career day to students, telling them how to find and discover who they are away from societal labels. I feel I'm the luckiest person alive and for someone like me who needs to show up and make real impact every day. It's the most fulfilling way I can live.
I don't want to be an accountant. I'm not built that way. We do a lot of personality assessments here. I know what fulfills me. It's awakening passion and others for social good. I call myself the Chief People Awakener. The fact that I'm playing with words and I can say things like that and I get to create offer some impact in creating some change in the roofing industry in Orange County business. Like Eric Goodman and some of the other guests that are connected to Eric, I'm working on a book. It's kind of fun how so many of my friends are working on books and we are in each other's books. It is amazing that I can write a book called Fearless Giving, how generosity and heart are keys to a prosperous and beloved business, which is really what we've discovered. I get to write that book and I get to share these stories. I feel absolutely blessed beyond measure.
Then I can't say this blessing without mentioning how my life has blessed me with five beautiful kids. I've got two 10 year old twins at home, Charlie and Gracie. They and their mother set a tone and a balance in my life that is absolutely beautiful. You won't seen me work in 70, 60, even 50 hour works weeks today. I'm really focused on balance in my life.
Do you have a moment that brings you the most joy?
One thing that comes to mind is my immediate family, my wife and twins. A story I've often told, why I often wear these Ronald McDonald's socks, Charlie and Gracie were born almost 11 years ago, but they were premature. They weren't breathing when they came out, the way my older kids did and my really healthy young marriage and pregnancy went really dark for a moment. It was really hard. I often tell the story how I would go in every day and ignore the Ronald McDonald house people who were trying to help keep us close, offering us beds and snacks. Until the day I went in to do skin on skin with Charlie, my wife was there with, with Gracie on her chest and I was supposed to do my two hours of skin on skin, I had heartburn. couldn't do it. On that day, I walked in, and no one was there. I took, without intention of paying them back, a granola bar. I took a granola bar from the Ronald McDonald station.
All I remember that day is how I ate that granola bar and I just remembered laying on that gurney and NICU with Charlie to sleep on my chest. I didn't have any more heartburn. I think I told that story when I joined the board. I didn't think it was a very powerful story, but something so simple about it. I told the same story to the National Roofing Contractors Association. Now we've adopted every roof on every Ronald McDonald house in the US. We go to Washington, 500 roofers strong sometimes. We're all wearing the socks. And we're all telling the story how we take care of Ronald McDonald houses. The Congresswoman remember us for that story. I think the single greatest joy in my life, because so much has risen out of it, is that my family, my immediate family and all my kids are healthy and whole.
Today is so balanced and magical and almost like the journey that we've been on was meant to be. They get to take part and their stories are known in the roofing industry when, I go somewhere and am asked how Charlie and Gracie are because that story is the first thing they heard. My wife and kids have totally changed me. There's nothing that brings me more joy than that. It's awesome that I can mix giving with love and family.
Then I get to do stuff like this with people like you. And you're in the same spot as me. That's why you pause to create this community. Eric and I are creating a podcast we're talking about. We've been talking about that for a long time too, but it will be called Fearless Giving. We're looking to create to impact the entire world. Because you know you can, once you imagine you can, well, I'll be damned. We can. I never knew that a long time ago. I just feel so lucky that I know that today. I get to participate in making my company, my industry, my community and this world a better place. And so do you.
Services offered
The one thing that probably my sales department always reminds me, I love to talk about what's really going on. I often don't mention what we do. Sales would want to remind that while we do a lot of good in the community, we only sell to one client, and that is Homeowner's Associations.
If you live in a condo or town home and you vote on your roofing as a whole, whether for maintenance or repairs, that's what we do and we do it better than everyone. We have the most amazing record-keeping, the most amazing tracking, the most amazing communication and participation to get involved. We even do tours of the company, which I always recommend you look under the hood of a roofing company, because there are tradesmen to actually build a business like this. There's a lot of luck, a lot of sweat, and a lot of giving involved. I'd say if you live in an HOA, please partner with Antis.
Piece of Advice
I wish I could ho back and grab myself by the shoulders when I'm 30 and Charles let's find some balance. When you tell your people why and and then tell the community why, it's okay to talk about it because the reason and the lens you will explain is how it will grow. If I can share in California with those in Texas what we're doing in California with Boys and Girls Club the ins and the outs then it'll grow. Find that thing that you love that's related to what you do and give it away. Then join that nonprofit committee that has a leader that you really look up to like a CEO that you respect that can lead a company. Don't join a nonprofit unless the board members sit around the table have what you want. Whatever you want, they better have the traits. Sit down where you can learn, what you'll find is you become who you sit next to.
I didn't ever feel worthy to serve on a board. I'm just a roofer. I've been on the Habitat Board for 14 years, and I look at those people as my brothers. I don't know when that transition occurred, but I'm holding myself higher without realizing it. Because I donate my time and I serve. My company is higher than it could be without realizing it because I donate my time and I serve. If you say you don't have time to serve, you're right, you'll be right. I swear to God, you'll be right your whole life. If you say you don't have enough money, it works. It's a good answer. But just try this, this is what Eric Goodman and I do. we just dial our brains back to maybe. Now, my brain's saying no all the time. If we donate all these roofs, it can feel like cringe, heck maybe even F bombs are dropped. But we say maybe, and then magic happens. That's the thing I'd say, maybe toward everything is good.
Those things that person you looked up to, like my father said, show up no matter what, do the right thing. And something magical happens, sometimes in the world, things like that get more traction. This is one of those times. People care about that real story of what you do where you spend you're spare time and most importantly why. Be the best you, show up and give some of it away, and it's okay to talk about it.
I got up today and I did a five minute journal. What I wrote what I was grateful for what would make the day great. I said things like I am a master Storyteller and people awakener because if I don't think it how am I going to live it. That stuff works and I spent time next to trees because trees kind of help me see the light and they ground me, I can literally feel the roots moving against the tree. Whatever it takes to awaken you do it everyday and then show up and be your best self. I think that is the self-care that I need to be able to operate this way. When you package it all together, most days are pretty awesome.
Community Callout
I go back to the Ronald McDonald story because so much happened when my kids were born premature and everything turned so beautiful. I also got to work on the campaign and raised $16 million to double the house. But all of this stuff wouldn't have happened without two people.
One is Fred Hill. Fred Hill used to play in the NFL in the 1970s, a tightend with Philadelphia Eagles. But during that period in the 70s, his daughter, Kim, became sick with cancer. It was an awful, awful experience for them. There they were, as Fred says, 2,500 miles away from their home in SoCal with a sick kid and nowhere close to them. That's when they went to Dr. Aubrey Evans in Philadelphia and created the concept that eventually led to the opening of the first Ronald McDonald House 50 years ago.
Now there's hundreds throughout the world, there's 166 of them in the U.S., and what's awesome is Fred and Fran Hill live here with us in San Juan, Capistrano area. We get to be with them, love with them all the time, and they are the most incredible people. They have created the largest giving platform in the world. I often say this and I might say this in my book unless it gets pulled out by the editor, McDonald's feeds like 1.5% of the food consumed in this world. That's a crazy number, and in the 1970s they created a very visible partnership with the first-ever concept non-profit that didn't exist like this.
We didn't have corporate social responsibility between a corporation incurring on a visible level. I find that Fred Hill if you go around him, he's like a flashlight of good energy. He's like Eric Goodman. He opened every Ronald McDonald house. He's the glue that made this work. Him and Fran in their story and their big love for their daughter and their big love for every family like ours who've had sick kids that needed to be close. Fred Hill is an honorary member of the board on Ronald McDonald house of which I've turned off of but Corey Vernon, our director of marketing, she is on the board. Fred Hill just thank you. He actually came and spoke to the entire roofing industry at the wigwam in Arizona. He went to our first big organized camp roof give at Camp Ronald McDonald house in the idle wild.
I love you, Frank. I love you, Fran. Thank you for giving such a beautiful gift back to the world that's lasting forever. Families with sick kids everywhere have a chance to be close so they all can heal.
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The second person who was also in camp with me that day at Ronald McDonald House was Bill Good. He was the CEO of the National Roofing Contractors Association for 29 and a half years, which is incredible. I met him and he was so purposeful. He did all these things like leading the crew that went back and rebuilt the structure and the roof on the Pentagon after the 9-11. He's a man that stands up and he came to me after he visited us in California and saw our culture. We went to a big habitat build for Humanity Build and he said, Charles, how can we lift the roofing industry?
It was six months later I called Bill and I said, I think I got it. I just found out that the 165 Ronald McDonald houses in the U.S., what if we supply the roofs. We're taking care of ours keeping the family safe and dry, what about them. He told me he thought it may work. He called over 200 roofing companies across the country, distributors, manufacturers and contractors like myself and virtually everyone said yes. Everybody in our community of the roofing industry is so generous and no person knows that better thank Bill Good. He is very active still in the National Roofing Alliance, which helped build this whole program to take care of. He's on the Ronald McDonald house board in Carolina where he lives and he's just bringing goodness and the power back to the trade of roofing.
In Closing
KLS wants to thank Antis Roofing & Waterproofing and Founder and Chief People Awakener, Charles Antis, for today's "Together Talks" feature. Follow along for their journey with their social handles below!
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